Berkeley Youth Alternatives is a youth service agency as opposed to a youth control agency. We propose that given an environment of mineral threat, in which caring can be demonstrated and mutual trust developed, many troubled youth who would otherwise be in institutional custodial care, can responsibly and successfully make the necessary adjustments to remain in the mainstream of our society. We propose to do this by developing a process and programs which provide the most appropriate services to achieve this end. The process allows for young people between the ages of 12 and 18 to avail themselves of our services. There are no additional eligibility criteria such as race, residence, religion, financial status etc. In addition, agreements are made with the juvenile probation and police departments for referrals to us. Other means of referral are through agencies and families. Once the contact is made the young person is informed of his options which include choosing not to participate. In choosing to participate, the client has available the various program services provided by professional and volunteer staff persons. The Crisis Center provides an atmosphere in which the client can drop in and informally talk with someone who is willing to listen. The Counseling Center provides various approaches to and uses of counseling techniques. The merits of this collective and eclectic approach are being measured. The traditional use of foster homes for housing is part of our current program. However, with the rapid decline of available homes, alternative types of housing are being explored. Our research will critically explore the effectiveness of the program. These results will be appraised and disseminated to various youth serving organizations nation-wide, along with evaluative results of the various methods of volunteer staff training which we are presently testing.